Rolling Up the Welcome Mat

I think it's probably time to let you all in on a little secret: We have a new family member, here at Casa de Stopster. (No, don't even think it. Before anyone [cough, Nana, cough, cough] pees his/herself with excitement, I'm not pregnant again. Not even a little bit.) We've suspected it for a while, but it's now becoming quite clear that Two has really and truly moved in, and she seems to have no intention of leaving.

I hate to sound all Debby Downer here, but the thing is, we were fine before Two came along. Our unit worked, and everyone was happy with their place in the family. No one fought (much), no one yelled (not really loudly), no one cried at the drop of a hat (not too often). Sure, Two can be really cute and funny. She talks all the time and makes really silly faces, but she also causes havoc and chaos on a daily basis. Two yells at the cats for touching her toys. She refuses to talk to people and then cries inconsolably when they leave. She won't follow directions. She hits people when she doesn't get her way. She continues to climb on the coffee table after being repeatedly told not to, and to top it all off, she thinks time-out is a game.

Last week, in the morning before daycare, Two asked for some water. Even though I was already running behind and had five other things to do before loading her and Maddie into the car, I dutifully put Two's water in a sippy cup and politely handed it her, only to have it slapped out of my hand. "No! Nooooo! No, no, no!" Two shouted. She cried. She screamed. She threw herself on the floor, fists flailing, feet pounding. Exasperated, I threw up my hands (which I seem to be doing a lot of since Two moved in), put the water on the floor, and walked away. "Fine," I said. "I'm going to leave the water here, in case you change your mind." Thirty seconds later, Two sat on the floor, chugging the water, tears standing in her eyes. *Sigh*

How long will Two be staying, you ask? It's hard to say. Two has a transient life-style, but those who've had her in semi-permanent residence before say she can stay anywhere from six months to two years. Plus, I don't think she even has all her "stuff" moved in yet. There are still times when she goes, and we don't hear from her for a week or so, which is sort of nice, even though I feel bad admitting it. Sometimes I think "Poor, misunderstood Two. You're probably just frustrated with your lack of ability to communicate with the world. It must be hard to have people impose their will on you day in and day out. Perhaps I should try to be more lenient, more giving." Then I get smacked in the face again, and the feeling goes away.

Two, you have officially out-stayed your welcome! Please depart quickly, so the three normal, sane people who live in this house can return to their pleasant, peaceful lives.

Remember the Cuteness, Part III

So, it's been a bit since Remember the Cuteness, Parts I and II, but Miss Maddie has been changing so much and so quickly lately, that I felt it was time to capture some of her current quirks and idiosyncrasies for posterity. Here goes:

1. A-Okay: Lately, the Madster's response to everything you ask her is "O-kay!" It's really that enthusiastic, too. Want to go upstairs? O-kay! We need to go change your diaper. O-kay! It's time to brush your teeth and get your eye drops. O-kay! (No seriously, that just happened tonight.) Now, if only she actually were okay with half the things she so easily acquiesces to, well, life would be a lot easier, let's just leave it at that.

2. Baby-stalking: There's no way to sugar-coat this one--the girl is obsessed with babies. She loves them. She loves to talk about them. She loves to point at them and squeal. She loves to touch them, and kiss them, and kiss them, and kiss them, and kiss them, and kiss them, and sorry, got stuck in a bit of a loop there. Most of the time, it's adorable, but sometimes, it can be a bit of a nuisance. For instance, there were three or four families in our Kindermusik class that had new infants, and the parents just brought them to class with them. Maddie was so interested in all the babies, that the poor moms and dads had to leave their newborns in their car seats behind a little barrier in the class room, just to keep her from running over and touching them every five seconds. (Sidebar: The "You'll really have to get her one of those comments" got a little annoying by the end of the semester. While we probably will "get her one of those" at some point, I have no intention of creating another human being simply because my almost-two-year-old wants one. On the other hand, this strand of logic would explain a lot of the crazy and ridiculous choices some people make. It's obvious; they were listening to two-year-olds.)

3. Swimfan: Our little Monkey-face loves her some chlorinated water (See Meltdown). As soon as the first warm day in June rolled around, we took her to one of the pools in our sub-division, and while she had to be coaxed into the water the first time, once in, it was love at first splash. She loves the kiddie pool that she can get in and out of by herself, she loves the big pool with its steps, and she really loves going back and forth between them, making whichever adult is the current "designated parent" chase after her, in and out, in and out. She alternates between calling pools "poooo" and "a baf wif kids," this last usually being shouted at Jon from across the pool: "Daddy, I takin' a baf! Daddy I takin' a baf wif kids!" The only downside to this aquatic fixation is her lack of understanding when it comes to timing and the pool (Well, that and the fact that our sunscreen bill is through the roof). She does not understand, for example, that one cannot simply just go to the pool first thing in the morning (especially when one's parents have to go to work), in the rain, right before bed, or on the way home from daycare (And lucky us, we pass three of the damn things going to and from this last one. Ugh.). Still, on hot summer days, it's a good way to kill an hour or so.

4. Kiss, Kiss, Hug, Hug: Finally, the baby who couldn't be bothered to cuddle with you, who didn't need to be held, has turned into a little girl who loves to give hugs and kisses. Yay! Yay! (Sorry, that was me doing a song and dance in my head. I'm pretty pumped about this.) She asks for kisses; she bestows unsolicited kisses; she gives "big hugs" in which she wraps her chunky, little arms as far around you as they can go and says "Ahmmmm." And last but most definitely, certainly, without a doubt not least, sometimes, sometimes, she will say, all on her own, "I wuv ooo, Mommy. I wuv ooo, Daddy." It's usually followed by a hug or a kiss on the leg (It's all she can reach if we're standing). Heart.melting.now.for.real. She did offer all the people in Home Depot a kiss the other day, after bestowing one on both Jon and myself, but we're trying not to read too much into that...

And now, since I know you're only reading this to placate me, here's the picture you popped over to our blog for anyway:

Maddie, enjoying a cookie while hanging out with Nana and Pa in Abilene, KS.

Bouncy Castle

Maddie LOVES jumping. Here she is playing around at the Festival on the Trails in Gardner.  We have been asked about going to a bouncy castle everyday since this video was taken.

M Is for Meltdown

So, to start with, Maddie has developed a deep, profound, and unshakable love for the pool. She alternately calls it a "poooo" or a "baf wif kids", but it's the same. She lurvs the pool, and she will smite anyone who stands between her and her watery soul mate, in so far as toddlers are capable of smiting.


To fuel her obsession, we drive by not one, not two, but three separate pools on the way to and from daycare, and each time we pass one, a small, squeaky voice in the backseat pipes up, "I go poooo. I go baf wif kids! I go poooo a liddle bit. I go pooo latuw." Every day it's the same thing, and every day we say maybe. Maybe later, maybe after dinner, maybe tomorrow. It's always maybe because while we're still newbie-parents, we're not completely amateurs. We know that a promise to a toddler is like a trained tiger--it seems harmless, but you turn your back on it, and it'll bite you in the ass. Seriously...


Anyway, this evening, we actually did go to the pool, no maybes. We went to the pool, and she played in the kiddie pool, and she jumped off the steps, and she tried to touch other kids toys while splashing them. And, when it was time to leave, even though she had been given several "after this we're going, in two minutes we're going, it's time to go now" warnings, she pitched a nutty.


In her defense, it was a Grade A nutty, complete with real tears, gut-wrenching screaming, and a red scrunchy face. When we got in the car, it got worse. When we tried to get her into her bath, it got even worse, and when she refused to lie down to have her hair washed and we were forced to pour water over her head, it reached biblical flood proportions. After that, she was pretty much inconsolable unless Jon was pretending to cry, too, at which point, she laughed in a crying, hiccuping sort of way until lapsing into tears again. She cried through her diaper change, she cried through her lotion application, and she cried while we forced her into her pajamas. Oh, and she also pee'd on the floor twice, but that's not really related, just slightly gross.

Finally, we read The Sleepy Little Alphabet twice, and then we were suckered into reading Goodnight Moon once as well. After that, she was fine. She gave hugs and kisses, she repeated prompted "I love you"s, and she went to sleep with two stuffed animals over her face, leaving her parents to contemplate many more nights of the same.

Kansas Thunderstorms

Here is a couple of pictures I took of some Kansas clouds. The first is a picture of some upper level winds causing a pretty cool whisping effect, technical terms I know. The second picture is a pretty sweet thunderhead at sunset. Out of the thunderstorms that rolled through yesterday we received 3-4 inches of rain. It made for a fun drive home.

Duck toots

A bath time ritual.

A new car!

Well not really, more like a borrowed car that Maddie  became very attached to.  At Alaina's 10 year high school reunion, one of her classmate's kids had a little car that Maddie couldn't get enough of. She loved it so much that she wouldn't let any other kids sit in it. When we would say it's not your turn she would reply 5 seconds later "Now it's my turn."  Maddie 's language has been taking off again, it's hard to believe we can carry on conversation with her, as well as some of the phrases she picks up from Alaina and I.